The Dream of Erin Conlon
by Charmian
Summary: A mill girl wants out. Her thoughts on her situation as she plans to escape.


In my history class we had to pick a photo and write about it. Well, I chose one with a girl, and now she defiantly had that Newsie gleam in her eye, looking out a huge mill window. So this is the result and I loved it! Please review!  
  
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Everyday when I got to work at the mill I sneak a look out of my favorite window. It shows New York the way I see it. You can see newsboys hawking headlines, something I have always dreamed of doing, people waiting to see a Vaudeville show, and vendors out selling their products. Someday I'll be down there too, hawking headlines. I'll be one of the only newsgirls! Da says it's a dirty job because they have to change the headlines so it sound better so more people will buy their papers. He feels it's lying. I don't care if it's lying or cheating or even stealing! I'll do anything to get out of this prison they call a mill. Just yesterday, my best friend Jane got two fingers chopped off by the machine she was working at. Da doesn't like me hanging around her too much. He says I should stay on the Irish side of the factory. Yet everyday we sneak out and have lunch together. We both know English, and believe in the same things, I don't see why we can't be friends. How can he expect me to work in this mill friendless? How can he expect me to work in this mill at all!  
I don't want to die here! I have to get out; this place will kill me. It's only a matter of time. Why just last month poor Sean O'Malley's Mum died. Word is she got her hand stuck in one of the weavers and it got infected. Now Sean's got to work extra hard to help pay the bills. He and his Da got two boys at home to care for, like Da and me. Mum died when I was eight, so that's four years ago now. She caught Tuberculosis and died three months later. She caught it at the mill where I now work. They didn't even give us extra money for her death! I had to start working to help Da support my twin brothers Killian and Patrick, who are three years younger than I. All of this is wearing down on me. I need to escape.  
I am planning on running away tonight. I'll go live in that Lodging House I pass when I sneak out to see Jane at night. I picked this night purposely because it is my payday. I'll get my dollar fifty and then I'll run.  
My ears will soon be filled with people chatting; yelling bets to one another, other Newsboys and Newsgirls (though there are few girls) hawking papers too. Finally I'll be free from the deafening noise of the machines, the think air filled with floating cotton, and blood stains that are constantly being added because of the deadly machines chopping off limbs.  
I'll be free from my dollar fifty pay! I'll be able to choose how much I make. The way I see it, I'll get fifty cents a day. See, if I buy fifty papers, that's two bits (twenty five cents) and when I sell it all I'll make fifty cents. That's half profit. Then maybe I'll save my extra money, after I eat and pay board, for a train ticket out of these foul streets filled with death and domination. I'll go somewhere open, free. Maybe Santa Fe or Houston. But first I need to leave. I hope Da can care for Killian and Patrick. As much as I don't want to leave them, my heart can't bare another day in the mill that caused my mother's death.  
I have heard of a woman, Florence Kelley, she seems to be trying to get a law passed that would ban child labor of any sort. Jane says someday, if Florence gets her way (Jane seems to idolize Florence Kelley,) our children will never have to work until they're older. I hope that law gets passed. If Florence doesn't I will!  
When that sun sets beneath the city and it's too dark to work I'll get my pay and then I shall never step foot in this dirty place again. I shall never look upon the nasty men who work for the owner that run around telling us how well the Italians are doing again either. And I suppose O shall never see Jane again. And I shall miss her, and Da and Killian and Sean, but I must do this.  
The rays of light are slowly slipping beneath the earth, lighting up the Manhattan skyline. Soon I shall be free.  
  
Note: Erin Conlon did reach her goal. She in fact ran away after receiving her pay and lived in the Manhattan Newsboy (and in her case newsgirl) Lodging House until she reached the age of twenty. From there she married the boy who had been the "leader" of the Manhattan Newsboys and they had two children. And her children never worked until they wanted too.  
  
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What can I say? I love Jack Kelly? Yes that might do! Review please! 


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